New KMC administrator
The Sindh government has appointed Murtaza Wahab as the new administrator of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation after the tenure of local governments in the province ended on August 31, 2020. The previous two unelected administrators failed to deliver. The change at the top in the KMC has received flak from the opposition in the provincial assembly as well as from other sections of the people. In democracy, it is the voting public that has the right, through their elected representatives, to see an elected person heading local bodies. Merely focusing on appointing administrator after administrator of the KMC — which has the responsibility of running civic affairs of the city — while ignoring its crumbling infrastructure and the lack of civic facilities is undoubtedly not a sound policy.
Over the past several years, the Sindh capital has seen civic facilities gradually disappearing. The city presents a sorry picture of administrative mismanagement. Residents are deprived of potable water, the sewerage and dranage systems in nearly all parts of the city have collapsed, the proof of which was last year’s devastating urban flooding. The city of 20 million does not have a public transport system worth the name. Many localities don’t receive piped water though they regularly receive water bills. Plenty of water is available through tankers and cans. It raises serious questions about the performance of the KWSB. Roads in most of the city are broken. A large number of areas lack cleanliness.
Some segments of the populace blame past rulers for the prevailing state of affairs in the provincial capital. However, voters criticise the PPP for ignoring Karachi saying it is only the incumbent that is slammed for failing to deliver, not past dispensations. The PPP has been ordering, directing and arranging things in Sindh for nearly 13 years. The new KMC administrator has indirectly mentioned the reported curtailment of the KMC’s taxation powers, stressing that no government institution can work without money. The government has changed the administrator thrice but twice did it fail to make the KMC functional. Mere change of face would prove only a cosmetic exercise.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 8th, 2021.
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